CAPITAL  .AND  LABOR. 


SPEEO H 


DELIVERED  IN  THE 


*  . 

’  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 


i 

JANUARY  18,  1867. 


/ 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C.: 

McGILIi  &  WITHEROW,  PRINTERS  AND  STEREOTYPERS, 

1867. 


.} '  <. 


•  I 


- 


"I 


:  ‘ 


* 


'■  ■  « 


SPEECH. 


The  House  being  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the 

state  of  the  Union,  and  having  under  consideration  the 

President’s  annual  message — 

Mr.  KUYKENDALL,  said : 

Mr.  Speaker  :  The  bill  which  I  introduced  on 
the  7th  of  January,  1867,  entitled  “An  act  to 
provide  a  true  national  currency  and  to  provide 
for  the  collection  and  disbursement  of  the  * reve¬ 
nue ,  and  the  liquidation  of  the  national  debt ,  and 
for  other  purposes''  as  will  be  seen  by  the  title, 
relates  to  one  of  the  most  important  subjects  of 
legislation,  a  subject  which  has  engaged  the  at¬ 
tention  of  our  most  profound  statesmen  from  the 
earliest  history  of  our  (Government,  and  has  been 
more  or  less  prominent  before  every  Congress 
that  has  convened  since  the  establishment  of  the 
Government,  and  which  to-day  is  as  much  an 
open  question  as  when  first  introduced  into  the 
halls  of  legislation.  Hardly  a  day  passes  without 
the  introduction  of  some  measure  looking  to  a 
change  in  our  monetary  laws,  or  for  the  estab¬ 
lishment  of  a  new  monetary  system,  indicating 
the  universal  opinion  that  the  present  system  is 
imperfect,  if  not  radically  wrong.  The  latter  I 
hold  to  be  true,  and  the  bill  which  I  introduced 
contemplates  a  thorough  change  in  the  financial 
policy  of  the  Government,  as  well  as  important 
alterations  in  our  revenue  system. 

Among  the  chief  objects  for  which  Govern¬ 
ments  are  instituted,  is  that  of  protecting  the 
rights  of  property  and  securing  its  equitable  dis¬ 
tribution,  according  to  the  labor  or  service  per¬ 
formed  in  its  production.  And  no  Government, 
whether  republican  or  not,  that  fails  to  effect 
these  important  ends,  can  permanently  secure  the 
prosperity  and  happiness  of  the  people. 

It  cannot  be  successfully  denied  that  physical 
and  intellectual  labor  employed  in  production, 
and  in  the  distribution  of  tho  products  of  labor, 
is  the  true  and  only  source  of  national  wealth, 
and  that  laborers,  as  a  whole,  are  poor.  Look 
where  you  will  upon  society,  you  will  see  those 
who  build  palatial  residences,  living  in  hovels ; 
those  who  manufacture  the  finest  apparel,  clothed 
in:  the  coarsest  fabrics;  and  those  who  produce 
in  abundance  the  most  wholesome  and  delicate 
food,  subsisting  upon  the  poorest  diet ;  all  de¬ 
prived  of  the  time  and  means  necessary  for  social 
and  intellectual  culture,  and  to  a  great  degree  des¬ 
titute  of  the  ordinary  comforts  and  conveniences 
of  life ;  eondemned  to  lives  of  unremunerated 
toil ;  while  another  cl  ass,  few  in  number,  notphys- 
ically,  intellectually,  or  morally  better  than  the 
average  of  society,  acquire  the  larger  portion  of 


the  products  of  labor,  live  in  comparative  idleness, 
surrounded  with  all  the  comforts,  conveniences, 
and  luxuries  of  life.  Besides  this  evil  of  central¬ 
izing  wealth  in  the  possession  of  the  few,  every 
few  years  our  country  is  visited  with  a  monetary 
crisis,  prostrating  all  branches  of  productive  in¬ 
dustry  and  legitimate  enterprise,  deranging  com¬ 
mercial  operations,  retarding  the  development  of 
our  natural  resources,  preventing  us  from  becom¬ 
ing  self-sustaining  and  independent  as  a  nation. 
This  disparity  in  the  conditions  of  society,  these 
monetary  crises  and  commercial  disasters,  are  at 
one  time  attributed  to  over-production,  another 
time  to  short  production  ;  again  they  are  as¬ 
signed  to  the  want  of  sufficient  tariff  on  imports 
or  duties  on  foreign  manufactures.  We  have 
greatly  increased  production  by  the  invention  of 
labor-saving  machines,  have  raised  and  lowered 
tariffs  without  producing  any  permanent  bene¬ 
ficial  effects,  unless  it  be  the  building  up  a  cotton- 
mill  or  iron  aristocracy.  The  wealth  continues 
to  centralize  in  fewer  hands ;  the  number  of  in¬ 
dustrious  poor  who  own  no  real  and  little  per¬ 
sonal  property,  continues  to  increase.  None  of 
the  causes  assigned  have  ever  satisfactorily  ac¬ 
counted  fqr  these  wrongs  or  pointed  to  a  remedy, 
because  they  do  not  reach  the  true  source  of  the 
evil,  which  will  be  found  in  the  unfair  distribu¬ 
tion  of  the  products  of  labor  between  non-produ¬ 
cing  capital  and  producing  labor  caused  by  the 
institution  of  money  on  a  wrong  principle,  and 
with  too  great  power  over  labor  and  property. 

Money  is  the  medium  of  distribution  between- 
non-producing  capital  and  labor,  the  rate  of  in¬ 
terest  determining  what  proportion  of  the  prod¬ 
ucts  of  labor  shall  be  awarded  to  capital  for  its 
use,  and  what  to  labor  for  its  productions  ;  and 
the  law  instituting  it  is  the  most  important  fun¬ 
damental  law  in  any  nation  ;  if  established  upon 
a  wrong  basis  it  cannot  be  rightly  governed  by 
subsequent  laws. 

I  am  aware  that  this  measure,  or  any  one  pro¬ 
posing  such  a  thorough  change  in  the  monetary 
system  and  financial  policy  of  the  Government, 
will  meet  with  opposition ;  first  from  the  prejudices 
that  exists  general^  in  the  human  mind  against 
changes  in  the  systems  and  usages  to  which 
they  have  been  long  accustomed;  but  these  pre¬ 
judices,  where  honestly  entertained,  will  readily 
yield  to  conviction.  Yet  it  will  meet  with  op¬ 
position  of  another  and  different  character,  one 
having  its  root  in  avarice,  founded  on  the  per¬ 
sonal  and  pecuniary  interest  of  ssulless  usurers, 
the  corporations  and  monopolies  which  have  been 
fostered  into  gigantic  proportions,  endowed  with 


4 


dangerous  powers  over  the  property  and  liberties 
of  men,  by  the  fraudulent  monetary  system,  the 
overthrow  of  which  the  bill  contemplates.  I 
have  no  hope  that  this  interest  will  yield  to  any 
arguments  I  may  offer,  or  indeed  to  any  that 
can  be  offered  ;  it  has  a  death  grasp  upon  the 
nation,  which,  like  the  institution  of  slavery,  it 
will  not  yield  until  utterly  destroyed.  But  re¬ 
lying  upon  the  ultimate  triumph  of  truth,  this, 
nor  any  other  opposition,  shall  deter  me  from 
the  discharge  of  what  I  hold  to  be  a  sacred  duty 
which  I  owe  to  my  immediate  constituents,  as 
well  as  to  the  American  people  generally,  that 
of  warning  them  of  impending  danger  by  point¬ 
ing  to  the  path  of  safety. 

The  bill  provides  for  the  reorganization  of  the 
Treasury  Department  of  the  United  States,  by 
the  establishment  of  a  “  Board  of  Management 
of  the  Currency  and  Revenue,”  consisting  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  four  other  mem¬ 
bers,  who,  in  all  matters  relating  to  the  currency 
and  revenue,  are  to  have  an  equal  voice  with  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The  objects  sought 
to  be  secured  by  this  plan  are,  first,  a  more 
thorough  supervision  and  personal  inspection  of 
the  detail  of  the  business  belonging  to  this  im¬ 
portant  branch  of  the  public  service,  by  compe¬ 
tent  and  responsible  officers,  than  can  possibly 
be  given  to  it  by  any  individual,  however 
talented  and  capable  he  may  be.  Admitting 
that  a  single  individual  may  have  been  able  to 
discharge  these  important  duties  before  the  war, 
when  the  revenues  were  derived  mainly  from 
custom  duties  and  the  sale  of  the  public  domain, 
and  when  the  Department  was  not  charged  with 
the  duties  of  providing  the  currency,  I  think 
it  will  not  be  doubted  that  the  war  has  increased 
the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  Department 
at  least  fourfold,  and  that  they  are  too  onerous 
to  be  discharged  by  any,  individual  without 
detriment  to  the  public  interest. 

Greater  uniformity  in  the  financial  policy  of 
the  Government  would  be  attained  under  the 
proposed  system;  there  would  always  be  three 
experienced  members  in  the  Board,  which  would 
constitute  a  majority  and  prevent  any  sudden 
change  in  case  of  a  change  in  the  political  sen¬ 
timents  of  the  Administration.  This  would  give 
confidence  to  the  business  community. 

Our  country  has  become  so  extended,  and  our 
interests  so  varied,  that  it  is  impossible  that  any 
man,  or  any  set  of  men,  residing  in  one  locality, 
can  have  a  full  and  clear  knowledge  of  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  all  the  other  localities.  In  order  to  obvi¬ 
ate  this  difficulty,  and  that  all  sections  and  in¬ 
terests  may  be  fairly  represented  in  the  Board, 
the  bill  provides  for  choosing  the  members  by 
districts. 

The  bill  contemplates  the  abolishment  of  all 
banks,  State  and  national.  It  could  therefore 
hardly  be  expected  that  any  one  who  favoi'3  the 
continuance  of  that  system  of  currency,  or  who 
is  interested  in  those  institutions,  could  so  far 
control  his  prejudices  and  interests  as  to  give 
the  proposed  plan  a  fair  trial.  Besides,  this  class 
of  the  community  have  controlled  the  financial 
policy  of  the  Government  and  the  currency  of 


the  nation  for  the  past  thirty  years ;  and  there 
is  in  the  minds  of  the  people  very  generally  an 
idea  that  they  have  conducted  them  with  an  eye 
single  to  their  own  aggrandizement,  without  re¬ 
gard  to  the  interests  of  the  industrial  classes.  I 
have  therefore  thought  it  the  wisest  policy  to 
exclude  from  the  Board  of  Management  of  the 
Currency  and  Revenue  all  stockholders  and  bank 
officers. 

As  money  exercises  a  wonderful  power  in  every 
departmentof  business  and  industrial  occupation, 
and  as  its  nature  and  regulation  appear  to  have 
baffled  the  wisdom  of  political  economists,  and 
led  them  to  the  conclusion  that  its  alternate 
abundance  and  scarcity,  and  the  fluctuating 
rates  of  interest,  are  irremediable  evils,  a  full 
and  clear  knowledge  of  its  nature  and  prop¬ 
erties,  the  functions  it  performs  in  business 
transactions,  is  an  indispensable  prerequisite 
in  order  to  its  institution  upon  true  princi¬ 
ples.*  Money  is  then  the  legal  medium  for  the 
exchange  of  property  and  products;  the  legal 
tender  in  the  payment  of  all  debts,  public  and 
private,  and  a  legal  lien  on  all  the  property  in 
the  nation.  To  be  fitted  for  the  performance  of 
these  functions,  it  must  be  endowed  with  the 
following  properties  or  powers,  to  wit,  power  to 
represent  value,  to  measure  value,  to  exchangQ 
value,  and  to  accumulate  value  by  interest. 

These  properties  or  powrnrs  are  inherent  in  no 
natural  substance,  and  must  be  conferred  on  the 
material  used  for  money  by  national  law.  Money 
has  no  material  value,  only  an  immaterial  or 
legal  value. 

The  material  of  money,  gold,  silver,  pqper,  or 
any  other  substance,  is  a  legalized  agent  made  to 
express  the  form,  properties,  or  powers  of  money 
and  render  them  available  in  business  transac¬ 
tions.  Common  usage  has  applied  the  term 
measure  to  the  material  by  the  means  of  which 
length,  weight,  etc.,  are  ascertained.  It  matters 
not  whether  the  yard  stick  or  pound  weight  be 
of  wood,  iron,  or  gold,  length  and  weight  are 
the  only  properties  necessary  to  be  expressed 
by  them,  and  possessing  the  standard  limits, 
their  material  is  a  matter  of  indifference.  Of 
course  some  material  is  indispensable ;  but  the 
only  thing  that  makes  one  substance  preferable 
to  another  is  its  superior  convenience.  So  of 
money  ;  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference  by  what 
material  the  powers  are  expressed,  for  the  ma¬ 
terial  is  merely  a  substance  fixed  upon  by  law ; 
the  natural  powers  of  any  material  do  not  make 
it  money.  Its  powers  and  agency,  as  money,  are 
delegated  to  it  by  law,  in  addition  to  its  natural 
capabilities.  When  gold  is  used,  the  powers 
conferred  upon  it  make  it  an  equivalent  for  every 
species  of  property.*  If  gold  had  not  been  select¬ 
ed  for  the  material  of  money,  and  a  legal  power 
given  to  it  to  exchange  property,  and  to  accu¬ 
mulate  interest  for  its  use,  a  man  would  have  a3 
little  need  for  more  gold  than  he  requires  for 
utensils  and  ornaments,  as  he  has  for  more  clothes 
than  he  can  wear,  or  more  tools  than  he  can  use. 
But  when  it  is  made  the  agent  of  these  legal 
powers,  it  becomes  necessary  to  acquire  the  gold 
in  order  to  discharge  debts ;  and  the  quantity  of 


5 


the  metal  being  limited,  its  owners  are  enabled 
to  extort  from  the  necessitous  a  very  high  price 
for  its  use.  The  common  opinion  that  the  ma¬ 
terial  of  a  currency  must  be-  something  scarce 
and  difficult  to  procure,  that  the  limited  amount 
may  render  it  permanently  valuable,  arises  from 
a  misconception  of  the  nature  of  money,  the 
properties  of  which  are  entirely  independent  of 
the  material.  The  value  of  money  depends  upon 
its  powers  to  represent,  measure,  accumulate,  and 
exchange  value. 

These  powers,  given  to  any  convenient  mate¬ 
rial  by  congressional  enactment,  will  qualify  it 
for  a  medium  of  exchange,  and,  in  every  partic¬ 
ular,  constitute  it  money.  The  power  to  make 
money  and  regulate  its  value  is  an  essential  at¬ 
tribute  of  sovereignty,  carrying  with  it  the  power 
to  control  the  value  of  all  the  property  in  the 
cation,  regulate  the  division  of  the  products  be¬ 
tween  capital  and  labor,  and  fix  the  rewards  of 
labor  in  every  department  of  industry.  While 
this  power  has  been  wisely  and  properly  granted 
to  Congress,  there  is  no  more  authority  granted 
to  that  body  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  to  delegate  this  sovereign  power  to  any 
class  of  individuals  or  corporations,  than  there 
is  for  the  delegation  of  the  judicial  power.  It 
is,  therefore,  the  imperative  duty  of  Congress  to 
institute  money  upon  such  a  wise  and  just  basis 
that  its  value  and  powers  may  be  uniform 
throughout  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Government; 
and  with  the  power  vested  in  the  sovereign  peo¬ 
ple  to  regulate  its  value  so  that  it  may  distribute 
products  to  producers  according  to  the  labor 
and  service  performed  in  their  production. 

Time  will  not  permit  me,  on  this  occasion,  to 
treat  in  detail  the  general  nature  and  properties 
of  money  as  fully  as  the  importance  of  the  sub¬ 
ject  demands,  and  i  shall,  therefore,  confine  my¬ 
self  to  a  few  brief  remarks  on  its  accumulative 
power,  and  then  proceed  to  show  that  the  rate 
of  interest  is  the  governing  power  in  the  dis¬ 
tribution  between-  capital  and  labor,  and  that  the 
present  rates  greatly  exceed  the  increase  by  nat¬ 
ural  production.  The  rate,  or  ahiount,  of  inter¬ 
est  theft  the  dollar  commands,  determines  its 
value,  and  makes  it  equal  to  a  given  amount  of 
actual  value,  or  property,  as  much  as  the  net 
proceeds  of  a  farm  determines  its  value — which 
consists  in  its  value  to  produce.  The  value  of 
the  money  is  artificial,  and  depends  on  its  legal 
>ower  to  represent  actual  value  and  to  accumu- 
ate  by  interest.  A  farm  that  produces  a  net 
annual  income  of  a  thousand  aollars  is  more 
valuable  than  one  that  yields  but  five  hundred 
dollars ;  so,  a  dollar  that  can  be  loaned  for  twelve 
per  cent,  is  more  valuable  than  one  that  can  be 
loaned  for  but  six  per  cent.  The  value  of  money 
as  much  depends  upon  its  legal  power  to  be 
loaned,  for  an  income,  as  the  value  of  the  farm 
does  upon  its  power  to  produce.  Any  increase 
or  diminution  of  the  power  of  money  to  accumu¬ 
late  by  interest  increases  or  diminishes  propor¬ 
tionately  its  value,  and,  consequently,  its  power 
over  labor  and  property.  To  keep  the  value  of 
money  uniform,  the  rate  of  interest  must  be  kept 
uniform.  Doubling  the  power  of  the  dollar  to 


accumulate  doubles  the  value  of  the  dollar.  It 
may  still  retain  the  name  of  dollar ,  but  it  will 
possess  twice  its  former  power  over  property  and 
labor. 

It  may  be  objected  that,  while  what  has  been 
said  of  money  is  true,  so  far  as  our  home  busi¬ 
ness  is  concerned,  yet  the  adoption  of  such  a 
monetary  system  would  operate  injuriously  upon 
our  foreign  trade;  that,  as  all  commercial  na¬ 
tions  have  legalized  the  so-called  precious  metals 
as  money,  we  cannot  maintain  commercial  rela¬ 
tions  with  them  unless  we  also  legalize  them  as 
money.  A  sufficient  answer  to  this  objection  is, 
that  our  coin  is  not  current  or  legal  money,  at 
the  standard  fixed  by  our  laws,  in  any  foreign 
nation.  They  only  receive  it  at  the  standard 
fixed  by  their  laws,  and  greatly  prefer  our  bul¬ 
lion  to  our  coin.  Besides,  legitimate  commerce 
is  the  exchange  of  the  products  of  the  territory 
and  labor  of  one  nation  for  those  of  another. 
All  beyond  mere  barter  is  a  matter  of  debt,  and 
if  we  imported  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
(that  being  about  the  amount  of  our  coinage)  in 
excess  of  the  exports  of  our  production,  we 
would  have  to  part  with  all  our  coin,  which 
would  derange  the  entire  industrial  interests  of 
the  nation.  Again,  if  we  did  not  use  these  met¬ 
als  for  a  circulating  medium,  we  would  have 
more  of  them  to  ship  abroad  as  bullion,  to  settle 
balances  or  to  exchange  for  articles  of  real  value. 
We  could  take  up  three  hundred  millions  of  our 
national  -bonds,  now  held  abroad,  and  thereby 
save  eighteen  million  dollars  of  interest  annu¬ 
ally — which  would  be  a  great  relief  to  a  people 
overburdened  with  taxes. 

The  advocates  of  a  specie  currency  argue  that 
the  so-called  precious  metals  require  about  an 
equal  amount  of  labor  for  their  production  the 
world  over,  and  therefore  they  are  the  true 
measures  of  all  values — that  it  is  the  labor  incor¬ 
porated  into  them  that  gives  them  their  value 
as  money.  If  this  be  true  of  these  metals,  it 
should  be  true  of  all  the  productions  of  labor. 

If  A  produces,  by  one  hundred  days’  mining, 
gold  to  the  value  of  two  hundred  dollars,  the  • 
Government  will  stamp  it  as  money  for  him ; 
and  if  B  produces,  by  one  hundred  days’  labor, 
two  hundred  bushels  of  wheat,  which  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  purchases  of  him  for  two  hundred  dol¬ 
lars,  and  he  is  willing  to  take  a  piece  of  papev 
stamped  as  money  by  the  Government,  “  two 
hundred  dollars,”  there  can  surely  be  no  valid 
objection  against  the  Government  doing  so.  It 
would  represent  the  same  amount  of  labor  ;  and 
if  it  had  the  same  legal  powers  as  the  gold,  it 
would  perform  all  the  functions  of  money 
equally  as  well,  coextensive  with  the  jurisdic¬ 
tion  of  the  law.  We  have  a  practical  illustra¬ 
tion  of  this  in  the  first  series  of  Treasury  notes 
issued,  which  was  fifty  millions,  payable  in 
coin  on  demand.  These  notes  passed  at  par 
with  coin  until  the  banks  and  the  Government 
suspended  specie  payments,  when  they  began  to 
depreciate  in  value,  as  compared  with  coin,  and 
continued  to  decline  until  they  were  made  receiva¬ 
ble  for  duties  on  foreign  imports,  or  in  other 
words,  were  made  legally  equal  to  coin,  when 


6 


they  immediately  rose  to  par  and  have  remained 
so  ever  since  ;  or  if  D  be  the  holder  of  a  bond 
for  one  thousand  dollars  which  he  wishes  to  con¬ 
vert  into  money,  and  is  willing  to  exchange  it 
for  a  legal  tender  Treasury  note,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  of  any  valid  reason  why  the  Govern¬ 
ment  should  not  make  the  exchange,  rather 
than  subject  him  to  heavy  discount,  for  the 
benefit  of  some  banker.  This  erroneous  idea 
that  the  value  of  money  inheres  in  its  material, 
and  that  gold  and  silver  possess  some  indefinable 
property  or  qualification,  that  fits  them  above 
all  other  substances  for  the  material  of  money  is 
at  the  bottom  of  the  false  theories  respecting  the 
the  nature  of  moneys,  and  its  rightful  institu¬ 
tion.  It  is  the  cause  of  its  alternate  abundance 
and  scarcity,  of  the  high  and  fluctuating  rates  of 
interest,  and  has  led  to  the  adoption  of  the 
many  false  systems  of  banking,  by  which  the 
legitimate  business  of  the  countrv  has  been  so 
often  deranged,  and  the  industrial  wealth-pro¬ 
ducing  classes  robbed  of  the  products  of  their 
labor.  And  while  this  mistaken  notion  is  en¬ 
tertained  by  the  people  and  their  law-makers 
these  evils  must  continue.  But  when  the  nature 
and  properties  of  money  are  clearly  understood, 
and  there  is  a  willingness  on  the  part  of  all  to  be 
governed  by  the  precepts  of  the  golden  rule,  the 
chief  difficulty  in  the  way  of  its  institution  on 
true  principles  will  be  removed  ;  and  its  institu¬ 
tion  on  correct  principles  will  do  more  to  lift  the 
weight  from  the  back  of  the  industrial  classes, 
and  encourage  the  development  of  our  resources, 
than  all  the  bankrupt  and  tariff  laws  that  have 
been  enacted  since  the  formation  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment. 

I  come  now  to  show  that  the  rate  of  interest 
on  money  is  the  governing  power  in  the  distri¬ 
bution  of  the  products  of  labor  between  non- 
producing  capital  and  producing  labor.  There 
are  but  two  purposes  to  which  the  yearly  pro¬ 
ducts  of  labor  can  be  applied.  One  is  the  pay¬ 
ment  of  the  yearly  rent  or  interest  on  the  capital 
employed,  and  the  other  is  the  payment  of  labor* 
The  rate  of  interest  maintained  on  loans  of 
money  determines  what  proportion  of  the  earn¬ 
ings  of  labor  shall  be  paid  for  the  use  of  capital, 
and  what  proportion  shall  be  paid  to  the  laborers 
for  their  productions.  If  laborers  pay  to  capital 
as  rent  or  interest  for  the  year  their  whole  sur¬ 
plus  products,  the  laborers,  as  a  body,  work  for 
a  mere  subsistance  of  food,  clothing,  and  shelter. 
To  give  an  idea  to  what  extent  the  power  of 
interest  operates,  it  is  only  necessary  to  say,  that 
all  the  money  lent  on  bonds  and  mortgages  by 
individuals,  by  insurance  and  trust  companies,  all 
lent  for  United  States,  State,  county,  city,  railroad, 
canal,  and  other  bonds,  to  make  public  improve¬ 
ments,  whether  these  improvements  be  made  by 
corporations,  by  the  State,  or  by  individuals, 
also  all  the  money  lent  by  banks,  brokers,  and 
individuals  on  promissory  notes — all  these  loans 
are  operating  with  a  like  centralizing  power 
against  the  producer  and  distributors  of  the 
national  wealth  and  in  favor  of  the  money  lend¬ 
ers.  This  power  also  establishes  a  like  rate  per 
cent  rent  to  be  paid  for  the  use  of  all  property, 


real  and  personal.  All  the  goods  on  hand  in  the 
nation,  and  in  process  of  being  manufactured, 
are  under  tribute  to  this  centralizing  power." 
It  is  an  unavoidable  power,  because  it  is  insti¬ 
tuted  and  enforced  by  the  national  laws,  and  is 
the  basis  upon  which  all  market  values  are 
founded.  It  may.  be  proper  to  remark  in  this 
connection,  that  in  the  calculations  that  follow, 

I  have  compounded  the  interest  annually,  which 
is  the  national  law  governing  increase  by  per¬ 
centage.  The  lowest  rate  of  interest  upon  money 
established  by  any  State  is  six  per  cent  per  an¬ 
num,  and  the  rate  has  fluctuated  between  six 
and  twenty  per  cent,  since  the  formation  of  the 
Government.  If  we  take  into  the  account  the 
rates  authorized  on  the  bonds  of  the  United  States, 
States,  &c.,  and  the  price  at  which  these  bonds 
have  been  sold  and  the  exorbitant  rates  in  many 
cases  charged  in  business  transactions,  I  think  it 
will  not  be  doubted  that  the  rate  has  averaged  as 
much  as  ten  per  cent,  per  annum  since  the  earliest 
settlement  of  the  country.  To  get  a  clear  idea 
of  the  accumulative  power  of  money  and  its  in¬ 
fluence  in  the  distribution  of  the  wealth  of  the 
nation,  we  must  take  the  longest  possible  period 
in  our  history.  The  first  permanent  settlement 
on  our  territory  was  made  at  Jamestown,  in  Vir¬ 
ginia,  in  1607,  or  two  hundred  and  sixty  years 
ago;  now,  if  these  settlers  had  purchased  of  the 
mother  country  the  entire  territory  of  the  United 
States  for  one  dollar,  and  given  their  obligations 
bearing  ten  per  cent  interest,  payable  two  hund¬ 
red  and  sixty  years  after  date,  their  obligations 
would  fall  due  the  present  year,  and  I  doubt  not 
it  would  be  considered  by  many  to  have  been  a 
good  financial  operation,  and  all  that  would  be 
necessary  to  discharge  this  obligation  would  be 
for  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  part  with  a 
portion  of  the  gold  now  lying  idle  in  the  Treas¬ 
ury,  or  to  make  a  draft  for  the  money  deposited 
with  the  national  banks.  But  the  result  will,  I 
think,  convince  the  most  strenuous  advocate  for 
high  rates  of  interest,  that  no  nation  or  people 
can  pay  ten  per  cent  without  robbing  labor  and 
centralizing  the  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  very 
few.  This  one  dollar  with  interest  at  tQn  per 
cent  compounded  annually  for  two  hundred  and 
sixty  years,  will  amount  to  fifty  nine  billion  six 
hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars,  or  over  three 
times  the  present  value  of  all  the  property  real  and 
personal  of  the  United  States.  There  are  in  the 
United  States  at  the  present  time  about  seven 
million  two  hundred  thousand  male  inhabitants 
over  the  age  of  .twenty  years,  and  allowing  each 
of  them  to  work  three  hundred  days  in  the  year, 
the  number  of  day's  work  performed  annually 
would  be  two  billion  one  hundred  and  sixty 
million.  To  pay  the  annual  interest  on  the 
above  sum  would  require  two  dollars  and  seventy- 
six  cents  ($2  76)  for  each  day’s  labor  performed  in 
the  nation.  Now,  let  us  see  what  the  result 
would  have  been  with  the  honest  and  well  regib- 
lated  dollar — with  money  so  instituted  as  to  bo 
the  servant  and  not  the  master  of  labor.  Had 
the  obligations  for  the  payment  of  the  one  dollar 
been  made  to  bear  three  per  cent  per  annum, 
the  amount  would  be  two  thousand  one  hundred 


7 


and  eighty  dollars.  But  it  may  be  objected  that 
the  resources  of  the  country  were  not  developed 
as  rapidly  during  her  colonial  condition  as  since 
the  establishment  of  her  independence,  and  that 
the  per  cent,  is  above  the  average  rate  of  interest. 
I  will  therefore  compare  the  increase  in  the  na¬ 
tional  wealth  by  natural  production,  with  the 
accumulative  power  of  money  at  seven  per  cent, 
interest  since  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
There  are  in  the  thirteen  original  colonies  or 
States  three  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand 
square  miles,  or  two  billion  ninety-five  million 
seven  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  acres,  which 
I  will  suppose  our  ancestors  to  have  purchased  in 
177G  at  fifty  cents  per  acre,  including  improve¬ 
ments  and  personal  property,  the  amount  would 
have  been  ten  hundred  and  forty-seven  million 
eight  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  dollars.'  This 
would  have  been  but  little  over  two  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  per  capita ,  which  I  think  will 
not  be  censidered  an  over  estimate  of  the  then 
value  of  the  property  of  the  nation,  for  allow¬ 
ing  it  to  have  increased  at  the  rate  of  increase 
during  the  decade  from  1850  to  I860,  which 
was  three  and  one-third  per  cent  per  annum, 
the  amount  on  the  4th  of  July,  1867,  would  in 
round  numbers  be  twenty  billion  seven  hundred 
and  twenty-three  million,  three  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  ($20,723,320,000,)  which 
is  a  little  in  excess  of  the  present  value  of  the  na¬ 
tional  wealth,  which  is,  in  round  numbers,  twenty 
billion  three  hundred  and  thirty  million  dol¬ 
lars.  Now,  had  the  then  estimated  value  of 
the  wealth  of  the  nation,  ten  hundred  and  forty - 
seyan  million,  eight  hundred  and  eighty  thou¬ 
sand  dollars  ($1,047,880,000)  increased  at  the  rate 
of  seven  per  cent,  per  annum  for  the  same  time, 
the  amount  woula,  in  round  numbers,  be  five 
hundred  and  six  billion  one  hundred  million 
dollars,  or  nearly  twenty-five  times  the  value  of 
the  national  wealth  on  4th  of  July,  1867,  in¬ 
cluding  the  territories  since  acquired.  Again,  to 
present  this  subject  in  still  stronger  light,  I  will 
estimate  the  Revolutionary  war  to  have  cost  the 
nation  three  hundred  and  sixty-two  million, 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  dollars, 
($362,120,000,)  which  I  think  all  will  admit  a 
very  moderate  estimate :  suppose  our  ancestors, 
at  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
to  have  purchased  the  country  of  England  for 
this  sum,  and  given  their  obligations,  bearing 
seven  per  cent,  interest,  payable  ninety-one  years 
after  date,  with  interest  compounded  annually  ; 
this,  I  doubt  not,  would  be  considered  to  have 
been  a  good  financial  operation ;  and  so  it 
would,  if  money  were  worth  seven  per  cent,  per 
annum,  or  the  increase  in  the  national  wealth 
had  equalled  seven  per  cent,  per  annum.  Such 
a  negotiation  would  have  saved  the  cost  of  the 
Revolutionary  war.  I  will,  therefore,  add  it  to 
the  then  estimated  value  of  the  national  wealth ; 
which  would  make  the  value  of  the  national 
wealth  at  that  time  one  billion,  four  hundred 
million  dollars.  Had  this  sum  increased  at  the 
rate  of  three  and  one-third  (3£)  per  cent,  per  an¬ 
num,  the  amount  would  be  twenty-seven  bil¬ 
lion  six  hundred  and  eighty-three  million  dollars, 


($27,683,000,000.)  while  the  increase  on  the  three 
hundred  and  sixty-two  million  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  dollars  ($362,120,000)  for 
the  same  time,  at  seven  per  cent.,  would  be  one 
hundred  and  seventy-four  billion  nine  hundred 
and  thirty  million  dollars,  ($174,930,000,000,) 
or  over  six  times  the  amount  of  what  the  entire 
national  wealth  would  have  been,  and  over  eight 
times  the  amount  of  the  present  value  of  the 
national  wealth. 

There  are  a  class  of  financiers,  claiming  to  be 
honest  and  intelligent,  who  argue  that  money  is 
worth  more  in  new  and  undeveloped  than  in  old 
and  improved  countries.  I  have  heard  hundreds 
of  them  contend  that  it  was  worth  ten  per  cent, 
in  the  State  of  Illinois.  For  the  benefit  of  this 
class  I  will  exhibit  the  following  facts.  I  will 
take  the  State  of  Illinois,  which  contains  55,000 
square  miles,  or  35,200,000  acres,  and  which, 
considering  fertility  of  soil,  mineral  wealth, 
commercial  advantages,  and  variety  and  salu¬ 
brity  of  climate,  I  think  is  not  surpassed  by  any 
other  contiguous  territory  of  equal  extent  pn 
this  eontinent  or  elsewhere.  I  think  it  quite 
safe  to  assume  that  the  rate  of  interest  on  money 
there  has  averaged  ten  per  cent,  per  annum  since 
the  first  settlement  of  the  territory,  which  I  will 
assume  was  on  the  4th  of  July,  1816,  or  fifty-one 
years  ago.  Now,  had  the  present  settlers  or 
their  ancestors  purchased  the  entire  territory  of 
the  State  at  the  Government  price  of  one  dollar 
and  twenty-five  cents  per  acre,  and  given  their 
notes  or  obligations  therefor,  bearing  ten  per 
cent,  interest  per  annum,  these  obligations  would 
fall  due  the  present  year,  and  would  amount  to 
the  enormous  sum  of  five  billion  seven  hundred 
and  eighteen  million  forty-four  thousand  four 
hundred  and  forty-four  dollars  ($5,718,044,444,) 
or  one  hundred  and  sixty-two  dollars  and  forty- 
four  cents  ($162.44)  per  acre,  for  each  and  every 
acre  of  land  within  the  limits  of  the  State.  Tlie 
interest  on  the  total  sum  for  one  year  would  be 
five  hundred  and  seventy-one  million  eight  hun¬ 
dred  and  four  thousand  four  hundred  and  forty- 
four  dollars,  ($571,804,444,)  to  pay  the  interest 
which  would  require  an  annual  rental  of  sixteen 
dollars  and  twenty-four  cents  ($16.24)  per  acre 
on  all  the  lands  in  the  State,  or  probably  as  much 
as  thirty  dollars  per  acre  for  that  portion  under 
cultivation,  while  the  value  of  the  State  as  per 
census  of  1860  was  but  eight  hundred  and  seven¬ 
ty-one  million  eight  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
two  hundred  and  eighty  dollars  ($871,860,280.) 
If  you  double  this  amount  it  will  not  amount  to 
one  third  of  the  accumulations  of  the  interest  on 
the  purchase,  at  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cts. 
($1.25)  per  acre,  there  is  not  one  of  my  col¬ 
leagues  that  does  not  know  that  the  lands,  with 
all  the  cities,  towns,  railroads,  and  other  im¬ 
provements,  would  not  sell  for  half  the  amount 
of  the  accumulations  by  interest  on  the  first 
purchases.  This,  too,  notwithstanding  that  pop¬ 
ulation  and  wealth  has  poured  into  the  State 
beyond  any  parallel. 

Kellogg,  who  has  given  this  subject  of  the 
accumulative  power  of  money  and  the  distribu¬ 
tion  of  wealth,  as  much  attention,  and  treated  it 


8 


more  ably  than  any  man  of  the  age,  says,  that 
before  the  war  as  much  as  one  half  of  all  the 
wealth  of  the  nation  was  owned  by  five  per  cent, 
of  the  population,  and  these  for  the  most  part, 
the  non-producers,  who  loaned  their  money,  or 
rented  their  property  to  the  wealth-producing 
classes.  The  effect  of  the  war  has  been  to  dimin¬ 
ish  production,  increase  the  rate  of  interest  on 
money,  and  to  centralize  the  wealth  more  rap¬ 
idly.  I  therefore  think  it  quite  safe  to  estimate 
that  as  much  as  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  wealth  is 
now  owned  by  five  per  cent,  of  the  population. 
If  any  one  doubts  this  let  him  take  any  city  or 
town,  the  population  of  which  is  ten  thousand, 
and  see  if  he  cannot  find  one  hundred  of  the 
most  wealthy  citizens  who  own  at  least  sixty  per 
cent,  of  the  property,  and  allowing  five  to  the 
family,  this  would  make  five  hundred,  which  is 
five  per  cent,  on  ten  thousand.  Taking  the  na¬ 
tional  wealth  at  twenty  billion  dollars,  it  would 
give  to  the  non-producing  class  twelve  billion 
dollars  of  the  national  'wealth,  which  they  loan 
or  rent  to  the  industrial  classes,  and  the  rate  of 
interest  will  average  at  least  eight  per  cent,  per 
annum,  making  the  yearly  burden  imposed  upon 
labor  nine  hundred  and  sixty  million  dollars 
($960,000,000,)  while  the  increase  on  twenty 
billion  dollars  ($20,000,000,000)  of  national 
wealth  at  three  and  one-third  per  cent,  per  an¬ 
num,  will  amount  to  but  six  hundred  and  sixty- 
Beven  million  dollars  ($667,000,000),  leaving 
the  wealth-producing  classes  indebted  to  capital 
or  the  non-producers  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
three  million  dollars  ($293,000,000)  at  the  end 
of  the  year. 

But  the  question  naturally  arises  how  we  are 
to  ascertain  the  just  rate  of  interest  on  money. 
Happily  we  are  not  without  sufficiently  reliable 
data  to  approximate  the  true  rate  nearly  enough 
for  all  practical  purposes.  Agriculture  is  tue 
leading  interest  and  foundation  of  the  national 
wealth  ;  and  the  increase  in  this  important 
branch  of  industry  may  be  taken  as  the  true  in¬ 
dex  in  all  other  departments  ;  and  the  division 
between  landlord  and  tenant  may  be  safely 
adopted  as  the  rule  of  distribution  between  capi¬ 
tal  and  labor  in  all  other  branches  of  productive 
industry.  And  I  find  by  careful  examination 
and  critical  analysis,  that  during  the  decade 
from  1850  to  1860,  which  was  as  prosperous  a 
one  as  we  have  had  since  the  establishment  of 
the  Government,  the  increase  in  improved  lands 
and  unimproved  lands  was  forty  per  cent.,  the 
increase  in  wheat,  rye,  corn,  and  oats,  forty-four 
per  cent.,  and  the  increase  in  all  kinds  of  live 
stock,  thirty-four  per  cent.  Taking  then,  the 
increase  in  lands,  all  kinds  of  grain  and  live 
stock,  and  the  total  increase  in  these  staple  pro¬ 
ductions  of  agriculture  for  the  ten  years  was 
thirty-nine  per  cent.,  or  three  and  one  third  per 
cent,  per  annum,  nearly ;  and  a  rentor  cannot 
afford  to  pay  over  one  third  of  the  net  proceeds 
and  keep  up  all  repairs  of  a  good  and  will-im¬ 
proved  farm.  If  then  the  division  of  products 
detween  capital  and  labor  in  the  most  important 
pranch  of  productive  industry,  be  adopted  as  the 
standard  of  distribution  between  capital  and 


labor  in  all  other  departments  of  useful  industry 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  true  rate  of  interest  on 
money  should  be  but  one  and  one  ninth  per 
cent,  per  annum.  Now  let  us  see  how  the  ac¬ 
count  would  stand  between  labor  and  capital 
with  the  rate  of  interest  on  money  at  one  and 
one  ninth  per  cent,  per  annum.  Twelve  billion 
dollars  at  this  rate  would  be  one  hundred  and 
thirty-three  millions,  while  the  increase  on 
twenty  billions  ($20,000,000,000)  of  national 
wealth  at  three  and  one-third  per  cent,  would 
be  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  million  dollars, 
($666,000,000,)  leaving  a  balance  in  favor  of  the 
wealth-producing  classes  at  the  end  of  the  year 
of  five  hundred  and  thirty-three  million  dollars 
($533,000,000,)  with  interest  at  two  and  half  per 
cent.,  the  balance  in  favor  of  the  industrial 
classes  at  the  end  of  the  year  would  be  three  hun¬ 
dred  and  sixty-six  million  dollars,  ($366,000,000), 
and  with  interest  at  three  per  cent.,  the  balance 
in  favor  of  labor  would  be  three  hundred  and 
six  million  dollars  ($306,000,000)  annually.  A 
result,  in  either  case,  more  encouraging  to  the 
industrial  wealth-producing  classes,  and  one 
very  much  more  to  be  desired  by  all  patriots, 
philanthropists,  and  Christians,  than  the  former 
one,  which  will  leave  labor  indebted  to  non-pro¬ 
ducing  capital  two  hundred  and  ninety-tbiee 
million  dollars  ($293,000,000^  anuually. 

I  come  next  to  consider  the  fitness  or  rather 
the  unfitness  of  the  present  monetary  and  reve¬ 
nue  systems,  and  the  financial  policy  to  meet 
the  wants  of  the  Government  and  business  in¬ 
terests  of  the  country.  Time,  on  this  occasion 
will  not  permit  me  to  examine  in  detail  the  laws 
creating,  the  so-called  national  banks,  and  es¬ 
tablishing  the  revenue  system,  and  I  must  con¬ 
tent  myself  with  the  notice  of  only  a  few  of 
their  most  important  provisions,  which  will 
serve  to  indicate  their  general  character,  and 
show  that  they  are  calculated  to  promote  the  in- 
tererest  of  non-producing  capital  and  to  impose 
unnecessary  and  grievous  burdens  on  the  enter¬ 
prising  industrial  classes. 

We  have  contracted  an  enormous  national 
debt,  one  more  onerous  than  that  of  any  civil¬ 
ized  or  Christian  nation  on  the  globe.  Th« 
annual  interest  on  the  national  debt  of  Great 
Britain  is  but  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  mil¬ 
lion  dollars  ($121,000,000.)  When  the  patriotic 
bankers  and  financiers  get  the  “greenbacks" 
withdrawn  from  circulation,  and  the  whole  na¬ 
tional  debt  converted  into  gold  interest  bearing 
bonds,  and  we  add  to  the  national  debt  proper, 
that  of  townships,  counties,  cities,  and  States,  con¬ 
tracted  for  war  purposes,  our  arinual  interest 
will  amount  to  at  least  two  hundred  and  forty 
million  dollars  in  the  money  of  trade.  Every 
dollar  of  this  debt,  interest,  as  well  as  principal 
must  be  paid  by  the  labor  of  the  nation.  It 
makes  no  difference  whether  it  is  collected  from 
duties  on  foreign  imports,  excise  on  whisky, 
tobacco,  and  other  luxuries.  I  care  not  how 
cunningly  taxes  may  be  laid,  the  burden  must 
as  surely  as  death  will  come  to  all  the  living,  in 
the  end  all  be  borne  by  labor.  It  is  therefor® 
the  interest,  nay  the  imperative  duty  of  every 


9 


Christian,  philanthropist,  patriot,  and  lover  of 
justice,  as  well  as  of  the  entire  industrial  classes, 
to  see  that  these  burdens  are  made  a?  light  as 
possible  and  equally  distributed  on  all  classes 
and  interests.  The  first  question  that  arises  is, 
will  the  financial  policy  adopted  and  being  pur¬ 
sued  by  the  Government  lead  to  these  results?  I 
think  a  thorough  investigation  and  careful  ex¬ 
amination  of  the  subject  will  convince  any  intel¬ 
ligent,  impartial  mind  that  it  will  not.  The 
reasons  upon  which  this  opinion  is  founded,  are 
as  follows :  The  same  parties  who  have  con¬ 
trolled!  the  money  interests  of  the  nation  in  the 
past,  are  to  conduct  it  in  the  future,  and  by 
means  somewhat  similar,  to  wit:  a  bank  cur¬ 
rency  purporting  to  be  redeemable  in  money  ; 
under  the  former  system  this  currency  was  is¬ 
sued  under  the  authority  of  the  several  States, 
sectional  interests  and  jealousies  prevented  a 
consolidation,  and  lessened  the  power  of  the 
bankers  for  mischief.  The  currency  issued  b}7 
these  institutions  was  never  any  better  apology 
for  money  than  falsehood  for  truth.  The  neces¬ 
sity  for  money  to  conduct  business  operations, 
and  the  absence  of  anything  better,  compelled 
the  people  to  accept  their  notes  in  exchange  for 
their  property  and  products,  which  gave  the 
bankers  the  control  of  the  moneyed  interest  of 
the  whole  country ;  with  power  to  regulate  the 
value  of  all  the  property  in  the  nation,  and  fix 
the  rewards  of  labor  in  every  department  of  in¬ 
dustry  ;  and  they  wielded  this  power  with  an 
eye  single  to  their  own  benefit.  They  expanded 
and  contracted  the  currency,  raised  and  lowered 
the  rate  of  interest,  encouraged  or  prostrated  all 
legitimate  enterprise  and  productive  industry, 
set  the  laws  at  defiance,  and  suspended  and  re¬ 
sumed  specie  payments  at  pleasure,  and  in  every 
possible  way  made  the  public  interest  subservi¬ 
ent  to  their  cupidity.  The  so-called  national 
banking  system  is  founded  on  the  same  princi¬ 
ple,  with  greatly  multiplied  powers  for  mischief. 
A  change  of  base,  while  the  principle  remains 
the  same,  can,  at  best,  be  but  the  exchange  of 
one  evil  for  another.  To  get  a  clear  understand¬ 
ing  of  the  practical  workings  of  this  system  and 
its  powers  for  oppressing  the  wealth-producing 
classes,  we  must  consider  it  in  connection  with 
the  laws  authorizing  the  national  loans  and  es¬ 
tablishing  the  revenue  system,  for  they  are  in¬ 
separably  connected.  Time,  on  this  occasion, 
will  not  permit  a  general  review  of  those  laws, 
and  I  will  therefore  confine  myself  to  the  con¬ 
sideration  of  a  few  of  their  most  important  pro¬ 
visions,  which  I  think  will  serve  to  show  that 
they  are  founded  on  a  wrong  principle  and  in¬ 
imical  to,  and  subversive  of  the  principles  of 
freedom  and  equality,  upon  -which  our  demo¬ 
cratic  institutions  are  founded,  and  must  work 
great  injustice  to  the  wealth-producing  classes. 
The  law  enacting  the  national  banking  system 
clothes  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States  with  unprecedented  and  danger¬ 
ous  power,  his  control  over  the  Bureau  of  the 
Currency  is  absolute  without  check  or  restraint 
from  any  other  department  of  the  Government. 
Indeed,  so  far  as  the  interest  of  the  people  is 


concerned,  with  but  few  and  unimportant  excep¬ 
tions,  these  unrestricted  powers  prevail  through¬ 
out  the  whole  law.  Thus  the  whole  moneyed  in¬ 
terest  of  the  nation  is  under  the  control  of  a 
single  man,  the  banks  are  only  the  medium 
through  which  this  centralized  power  operates. 
And  when  these  despotic  powers  (for  such  they 
surely  arc)  are  vaelded  by  one  whose  life  has 
been  devoted,  not  to  encouraging  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  national  resources  by  aiding  hone&k 
industry  and  fostering  legitimate  enterprise, 
but  to  sacrificing  public  and  private  interests, 
and  filching  from  honest  toil  the  last  farthing 
when  necessary  to  pay  large  dividends  to  the 
stockholders  in  the  banks  with  which  lie  may 
have  been  connected  or  over  which  he  may 
have  been  called  to  preside.  This  is  the  charac¬ 
ter  of  the  man  these  bankers  will  insist  shall  fill 
the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States,  and  they  will  permit  no  other 
character  to  occupy  that  place  for  any  length  of 
time,  for  through  Congress  they  have  the  power 
to  remove  him,  and  should  this  system  be  con¬ 
tinued,  we  will  not  have  many  elections  before 
a  majority  of  that  body  will  be  stockholders  in 
these  banks,  if  indeed  that  be  not  the  case  al¬ 
ready.  I  venture  the*  prediction  that  if  you 
should  interrogate  the  Secretary  as  to  the  wis¬ 
dom  and  justice  of  his  plan,  he  would  tell  you 
it  was  the  wisest  and  best  that  could  possibly 
be  devised,  for  he  had  consulted  with  the  lead¬ 
ing  bankers  and  most  intelligent  business  men  of 
Wall  street,  New  York,  Third  street,  Philadel¬ 
phia,  and  State  street,  Boston,  by  all  of  whom 
it  was  most  heartily  approved,  and  well  it  might 
be,  because  if  you  could  go  back  and  get  at  the 
paternity  of  the  measure,  you  would  find  it 
originated  with  them,  was  presented  by  them  to 
the  Secretary  for  his  approval,  and  not  by  the 
Secretary  to  them  for  their  endorsement. 

This  is  the  history  of  every  financial  measure 
adopted  by  the  Government  since  the  commence¬ 
ment  of  the  rebellion,  excepting  alone  the  issue 
of  the  legal  tender  Treasury  notes,  and  this  was 
the  measure  that  sustained  the  credit  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  and  carried  us  through  the  darkest 
hours  of  our  troubles,  and  which  was  opposed 
by  these  bankers  and  intelligent  business  men  at 
every  step,  and  which  they  now  demand  shall 
be  blotted  from  our  statutes.  It  is  entirely  un¬ 
necessary  for  me  to  say  anything,  in  this  con¬ 
nection,  in  relation  to  the  business  and  interest 
of  the  bankers,  these  are  understood  by  all; 
but  a  word  in  reference  to  the  business  and  in¬ 
terests  of  these  intelligent  business  men,  of  whose 
wisdom  and  patriotism  newspapers  have  so  much 
to  say,  and  who  have  so  much  influence  in 
molding  the  financial  legislation  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment,  may  not  be  amiss ;  for  it  would  be  very 
natural  to  suppose  that  they  were  the  energetic, 
enterprising  portion  of  our  business  community, 
who  are  engaged  in  the  development  of  our  re¬ 
sources  ;  but  not  a  bit  of  it.  They  are  the  specu¬ 
lators  in  stocks,  food,  clothing,  and  all  the 
products  of  labor,  standing  between  the  pro¬ 
ducers  and  consumers — amassing  fortunes  by  a 
species  of  the  very  worst  kind  of  gambling ;  and 


10 


While  they  are  permitted  to  exercise  such  a  pow¬ 
erful  influence  over  the  financial  policy  of  the 
Government,  as  they  now  do,  we  can  be  nothing 
but  a  nation  of  gamblers  ;  useful  enterprise  can¬ 
not  be  undertaken  ;  nor  can  the  legitimate  com¬ 
mercial  operations  of  the  nation  be  conducted 
other  than  as  gambling  operations.  These  banks 
are  authorized  to  be  located  in  every  city  and 
village  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land,  forming  a  complete  system  of  financial  es¬ 
pionage.  Under  the  revenue  system  they  will 
have  their  thousands  of  agents  in  every  part  of 
the  country,  clothed  with  authority  to  pry  into 
the  affairs  of  each  individual.  I  say  their 
agents,  because  they  will  control  the  Govern¬ 
ment,  and  no  officer  or  agent  of  the  Government, 
who  is  not  in  the  interest  and  the  willing  tool 
of  this  moneyed  aristocracy,  can  hold  any  office 
or  place  under  the  Government.  Through  these 
means  they  will  have  a  full  knowledge  of  the 
business  of  every  miner,  farmer,  mechanic,  mer¬ 
chant,  manufacturer,  railroad  company,  and  other 
enterprises  in  the  nation.  This  will  enable  them 
to  operate  understandingly  and  with  their  un¬ 
restricted  power  over  the  currency  of  the  nation, 
they  can  make  every  other  interest,  however 
great,  subservient  to  their  cupidity,  and  tax 
the  industrial  classes  until  they  become  as  help¬ 
less  as  the  fly  in  the  spider’s  web — tax  their 
manhood  out  of  them. 

Their  circulation  is  to  be  apportioned  among 
the  States  and  Territories  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  having  due  regard  to  the  existing  bank¬ 
ing  capital,  resources,  and  business  of  such  States 
and  Territories.  The  effect  of  this  will  be  to  give  a 
few  of.the  eastern  cities  and  villages  the  control 
of  the  currency  of  the  nation,  they  having  major 
part  of  the  existing  banking  capital.  The  law  pro- 
videsthat  three-fifths  of  the  amount  to  be  kept  on 
hand  in  lawful  money  to  redeem  their  circulation 
may  consist  of  clearing  house  certificates,  and 
balances  due  from  other  associations.  The  effect 
of  this  will  be  to  require  the  banks  in  our  large 
cities  to  keep  on  hand  but  ten  cents,  and  those 
located  in  all  other  places  but  six  cents  on  the 
dollar  in  lawful  money,  for  the  redemption  of 
their  circulation,  or  an  average  of  about  eight 
per  cent.  It  would  be  quite  natural  to  conclude 
that  the  banks  gave  the  Government  some  val- 
able  considerations  for  the  grant  of  those  sover¬ 
eign  principles  and  powers ;  but  they  do  not. 
They  are  to  have  the  use  of  the  public  money 
(except  receipts  from  customs)  for  banking  pur¬ 
poses.  They  draw  the  interest  in  gold  on  the 
bonds  deposited  to  secure  the  redemption  of 
their  circulating,  notes,  and  receive  ninety  per 
cant,  of  the  value  of  the  bonds  so  deposited, 
which  they  loan  to  the  people  at  from  seven  to 
tan  per  cent.,  and  to  reimburse  the  treasury  for 
printing  their  notes,  and  all  other  expenses  in¬ 
curred  under  the  law,  and  in  lieu  of  all  taxes  on 
their  circulation,  and  the  bonds  deposited  to 
secure  the  redemption  thereof,  they  are  required 
to  pay  into  the  national  treasury  only  one  half 
of  one  per  cent,  semi-annually,  which  will  not 
probably  more  than  defray  the  expenses  incurred 
by  the  Government  under  the  law.  Thus,  in¬ 


stead  of  the  bankers  paying  a  liberal  bonus  to 
the  Government  for  these  unheard-of  privileges 
and  powers,  as  claimed  by  the  bankers  and  their 
allies,  the  law  virtually  exonerates  them  from 
taxation.  Let  us  now  look  at  the  profits  these 
bankers  derive  from  this  system.  To  put  in  ci> 
culation  three  hundred  million  dollars  ($300,- 
000,000)  currency,  will  require  the  deposit  of 
three  hundred  and  thirty-three  million  three 
hundred  and  thirty-three  thousand  three  hurt- 
dred  and  thirty-three  dollars  ($333,333,333)  in 
bonds,  on  which  they  draw  six  per  cent,  in  gol<h 
equal  to  at  least  eight  and  one  half  per  cent,  in 
the  money  of  trade;  but  which,  when  we  take 
into  the  account  the  exemption  from  taxes,  will 
equal  full  ten  per  cent.  They  have  the  three 
hundred  million  of  currency  received  from  the 
Government,  which  they  loan  to  the  people  ai 
an  average  of  at  least  nine  per  cent,  per  annum, 
add  to  this  the  Government  deposits,  which  they 
will  loan  to  the  people,  and  which,  I  think,  will 
average  as  much  as  one  hundred  million  of  dol¬ 
lars,  ($100,000,000,)  from  which  must  be  deduct¬ 
ed  the  interest  on  eight  per  cent,  of  their  circur 
lation  kept  on  hand  for  the  redemption  of  their 
notes. 

Interest,  on  bonds  deposited  $333,333,333  at  10 

percent .  $33,333335 

Interest  on  circulation  $300,000,000  at  9  per  cent..  27,000,000 
Interest  on  Government  deposits  $100,000,000  at 
9  per  cent .  9,000,000 

Total  income .  $09,333,333 

Deduct  interest  on  $24,000,000  kept  on  hand  to 
redeem  circulation  at  9  per  cent .  $2,160,000 

Net  income .  $67,173338 

or  a  fraction  over  twenty  per  cent,  per  annum. 

or  a  fraction  over  twenty  per  cent,  per  annum. 

Another  and  not  the  least  mischievous  and 
dangerous  provision  of  this  scheme  is  that  it 
will  be  a  close  corporation.  The  only  channel 
through  which  the  people,  who  are  compelled  to 
exchange  their  labor,  products,  and  property  foi 
these  bank  promises,  can  obtain  any  knowledge 
of  the  solvency  of  the  different  institutions  issn- 
ing  this  currency  is  through  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  for  he  has  the  sole  power  of  choosing 
the  time  and  appointing  the  agents  to  examine 
the  association.  When  one  of  these  institutions 
fails,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  will  without 
doubt  protect  the  interests  of  his  friends,  the 
bankers  and  intelligent  business  men,  by  giving 
them'  timely  notice,  and  the  Government  and 
those  engaged  in  legitimate  business  will  become 
the  victions  of  their  villainies. 

It  is  true  that  for  the  present  the  circulation 
of  the  banks  is  limited  to  three  hundred  milliah 
of  dollars  ($300,000,000.)  But,  having  secured 
these  unwarranted  powers  and  privileges,  tbfi 
bankers  and  usurers  will  either  demand  the 
withdrawal  of  the  legal  tender  Treasury  notes 
which  cost  the  people  nothing,  and  an  increase 
of  their  circulation  which  really  cost  the  tax¬ 
payers  nine  per  cent,  in  the  money  of  trade,  or 
that  the  currency  shall  be  contracted  under  the 
delusive  plea  of  a  return  to  specie  payments.  If 
the  former  policy  be  adopted,  just  as  fast  as  the 
legal  tenders  are  withdrawn  from  circulation 


'11 


their  place  will  be  filled  with  the  notes  of  the 
banks,  and  we  shall  soon  have  as  much  as  seven 
hundred  million  ($700,000,000)  of  the  notes  of 
the  banks  in  circulation,  from  which  the  banks 
will  derive  an  annual  income  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty-six  million  seven  hundred  thousand 
dollars  ($156,700,000,)  while  the  interest  at  three 
per  cent,  per  annum  on  the  amount  of  capital 
necessarj^  to  put  this  amount  of  notes  in  circula¬ 
tion,  will  only  amount  to  twenty-three  million 
three  hundred  and  thirty-three  thousand  dollars 
($23,333,000),  leaving  to  the  bankers  a  nett  an¬ 
nual  profit  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  mil¬ 
lion  three  hundred  and  sixty-seven  thousand 
dollars,  ($133,367,000;)  every  dollar  of  which 
is  unnecessary  and  unjust  burden  imposed  on 
the  industrial  wealth-producing  class  for  the 
benefit  of  the  bankers.  The  adoption  of  the  lat¬ 
ter  policy  would,  if  possible,  be  more  unjust  and 
oppressive  to  the  industrial  wealth -producing 
classes  or  tax-payers  than  the  former  in  the  pre¬ 
sent  condition  of  the  nation.  It  must  be  remem¬ 
bered  that  the  banks  never  have,  and  never 
will,  under  any  system,  pay  specie,  unless  by  so 
doing  they  can  promote  their  own  selfish  inter¬ 
est.  Let  us  then  look  at  the  effects  of  an  attempt 
to  return  to  specie  payments  in  the  present  con¬ 
dition  of  the  country.  It  would  increase  the 
value  of  money  or  non-producing  capital  and 
augment  its  power  over  labor  and  property.  Re¬ 
ducing  prices  by  raising  the  rate  of  interest  and 
increasing  the  power  of  money  is  simply  rob¬ 
bing  labor  for  the  benefit  of  non-producing  cap¬ 
ital.  If,  by  contracting  the  currency,  the  bushel 
of  grain,  yard  of  cloth,  pair  of  boots,  coat,  hat, 
and  all  other  productions  of  labor,  be  re¬ 
duced  to  one  half  their  present  price,  the  price 
of  labor  must  fall  in  a  like  proportion  ;  while  if 
the  rate  of  interest  on  the  Government  bonds 
and  other  moneyed  obligations,  as  well  as  bank 
dividends,  remain  unchanged,  the  value  of  money 
will  be  doubled ;  for  the  interest  and  dividends 
when  earned  and  paid  will  buy  double  the 
amount  of  the  products  labor  and  hire  twice 
the  number  of  days’  work.  It  will  also  practi¬ 
cally  double  the  pay  of  every  assessor,  tax-gath¬ 
erer,  postmaster,  member  of  Congress,  and  other 
officer,  or  agent  of  the  National  Government,  as 
well  as  those  of  the  States,  counties,  and  cities, 
for  their  pay  will  buy  double  the  amount  of  the 
products  of  labor.  It  will  readily  be  seen  that 
the  practical  effect  of  this  policy  will  be  to  dou¬ 
ble  the  taxes  as  well  as  the  obligations  of  every 
debtor  in  the  nation,  increase  the  value  of  all 
money  obligations,  and  render  all  public  offices 
more  desirable.  It  is  not  then  at  all  surprising 
that  brokers,  bankers,  bond-holders,  and  the 
non-producing  classes  generally,  should  be  the 
advocates  for  its  adoption,  or  that  there  should 
be  such  otherwise  unaccountable  unanimity  on 
the  part  of  the  leading  journals  (without  regard 
to  tneir  political  sentiment)  in  favor  of  it,  for 
most  of  them  are  either  directly  or  indirectly 
largely  benefited  by  it ;  nor  is  it  by  any  means 
wonderful  that  our  law-makers  and  Government 
officers  and  agents  should  be  susceptible  to 
these  potent  influences.  But  it  is  a  matter  of 


astonishment  that  farmers,  miners,  artizans, 
mechanics,  merchants,  and  all  who  are  employed 
in  any  branch  of  useful  industry,  or  engaged 
in  legitimate  enterprise,  or  any  of  the  useful 
callings  and  professions,  as  well  as  patriots, 
philanthropists,  and  Christians,  have  so  long 
silently  permitted  the  enemies  of  freedom 
and  justice  to  usurp  the  sovereign  power  to 
make  money  and  regulate  its  value — one  of  tire 
most  essential  attributes  of  sovereignty — by 
which  they  secure  the  power  to  control  the  value 
of  all  the  property  in  the  nation,  and  fix  the  re¬ 
wards  of  labor  in  every  department  of  useful 
industry — to  subvert  the  principles  of  justice  and 
freedom  upon  which  our  noble  temple  of  liberty 
was  founded — to  violate  with  impunity  every 
right  of  humanity,  and  to  reduce  to  a  state  of 
vassalage  or  slavery  the  whole  enterprising, 
wealth-producing  classes  of  the  nation.  Having 
secured  exemption  from  State  and  municipal 
taxes,  they  will  next  demand  exemption  from 
taxes  on  the  incomes  arising  from  bank  divi¬ 
dends  and  interest  on  the  G-overnment  bonda. 
They  will  then  have  a  legalized  money  aristoo- 
racy.  The  farmers,  mechanics,  merchants,  and 
wealth-producing  classes  generally,  might,  with 
equal  justice,  ask  that  their  property,  products* 
and  labor  should  be  exempt  from  all  taxes.  But, 
should  they  make  this  demand,  wrhat  a  howl  the 
bankers,  brokers,  usurers,  and  the  professional 
politicians  and  sensation  newspapers  in  the  in¬ 
terest  of  this  money  aristocracy  would  raise! 
They  would  brand  it  as  repudiation.  And  what 
is  the  exemption  from  taxes  of  your  bonds, 
bearing  bankrupting  rates  of  interest,  and  your 
twenty  per  cent,  bank  dividends,  but  legalized 
repudiation  ?  These  laws  or  schemes,  taken  to¬ 
gether,  give  the  one-twentieth  the  power  to  rob 
the  other  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  surplus 
products  of  all  their  labor  and  talents  ;  and  any 
system  that  authorizes  and  empowers  one  class  to 
take  from  another  class  the  fruits  of  their  labor  and 
talents  without  equivalent  is  practical  slavery. 

I  care  not  what  it  is  called.  When  you  deprive 
a  man  of  the  right  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  fruits 
of  his  labor  and  talents,  there  is  no  other  right 
which  he  can  long  maintain.  The  continual  and 
pressing  wants  of  his  physical  nature  will  soon 
reduce  him  to  abject  slavery  ;  and  what  is  true 
of  the  individual  is  true  of  the  nation. 

I  am  persuaded  that  a  thorough  investigation 
and  a  careful  examination  into  all  the  provisions 
of  these  laws  will  convince  any  intelligent,  dis¬ 
interested  mind  that,  under  their  operation,  lar  * 
bor  cannot  be  properly  rewarded — that  the  welh 
to-do  farmers,  mechanics,  merchants,  and  others 
will  soon  be  reduced  to  the  present  status  oi 
common  laborers,  and  those  who  now  earn  their 
bread  by  daily  toil  to  a  state  of  positive  servi*- 
tude.  I  assert,  without  fear  of  successful  con¬ 
tradiction,  that  an  investment  of  a  million  of 
dollars  under  these  laws  will  yield  a  larger  net 
income  than  a  like  amount  invested  in  lands  and 
slaves,  employed  in  raising  cotton  or  sugar,  did 
in  the  South,  in  the  palmiest  days  of  the  oli¬ 
garchy  ;  and  it  was  its  commercial  or  economical 
value,  in  other  words  its  profitableness,  that 


12 


maintained  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the 
South.  Thus,  instead  of  materially  bettering 
the  condition  of  the  poor  African,  we  propose  to 
nationalize  slavery  by  unwise  and  unjust  legis¬ 
lation,  in  the  institution  of  money,  and  imposing 
on  the  industrial,  wealth-producing  classes  one¬ 
rous  and  unnecessary  burdens  for  the  benefit 
of  a  privileged  class. 

Prominent  among  the  objects  for  which  gov¬ 
ernments  are  instituted  are  the  protection  of  life 
and  property;  it  is  then  but  even  justice  that 
each  should  share  its  rightful  proportion  of  the 
burdens  and  sacrifices  necessary  for  its  support. 
Labor  has  in  the  late  struggle  for  the  mainte¬ 
nance  of  the  Government  fought  the  battles, 
furnished  the  food,  clothing,  arms,  and  munitions 
of  war,  with  the  means  of  transportation.  In 
a  word,  the  industrial  classes  performed  their 
whole  duty  to  the  Government. 

Now,  let  us  see  how  money,  or  non-producing 
capital,  which  is  protected  by  the  laws  equally 
with  labor,  fulfilled  its  obligations  to  the  Gov¬ 
ernment.  At  the  commencement  of  the  rebellion 
money  was  abundant  in  our  large  commercial 
centres,  at  from  four  to  five  per  cent,  on  first  class 
securities.  The  first  demand  made  by  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  was  for  a  loan  of  some  eight  million 
dollars,  for  which  it  offered  its  bonds,  bearing 
six  per  cent,  interest,  which,  if  my  memory 
serves  me  right,  was  bid  for  at  about  eighty  cents 
©n  the  dollar,  equal  to  seven  and  one  half  per 
cent.  And  the  so-called  capitalists  went  on  in¬ 
creasing  in  their  demands,  and  warring  on  the 
credit  of  the  Government,  until  they  got  the  rate 
of  interest  up  to  nine  per  cent,  on  the  money  of 
trade  on  the  Government  securities,  and  the 
bonds  exempt  from  State  and  municipal  taxes ; 
and  when,  in  its  extremity,  the  Government  was 
compelled  to  resort  to  the  issue  of  Treasury  notes, 
even  this  necessary  and  just  measure  met  with 
their  opposition.  They  forbade  Congress  mak¬ 
ing  the  Treasury  notes  a  legal  tender  for  the  pay¬ 
ment  of  the  interest  on  the  bonds,  and  nothing 
but  their  fears  prevented  the  entire  defeat  of  the 
measure.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  money  has 
not  only  been  exempt  from  the  sacrifices  that 
labor  and  human  life  have  been  subjected  to, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  its  value,  and  consequently 
its  power  over  property  and  labor,  has  been 
doubled  by  the  rebellion.  And  this,  too,  with¬ 
out  rendering  the  Government  or  people  any 
service  whatever  If  there  had  not  been  a  bank¬ 
note  or  gold  dollar  in  the  nation  at  the  com¬ 
mencement  of  the  war,  we  should  have  got  along 
infinitely  better,  financially,  than  we  have. 
Gold  and  its  worshippers  have  waged  a  contin¬ 
ual  war-  against  the  credit  of  the  Government 
during  all  our  troubles,  and  it  is  to-day  of  no 
more  use  to  us  as  money  than  if  every  ounce  of 
it  was  still  in  the  California  mines.  And  as  for 
bank  notes,  they  have  been  and  are  a  fraud 
upon  the  rights  of  labor ;  no  matter  whether 
issued  under  State  or  National  authority,  their 
character  is  the  same  ;  and  every  true  and  loyal 
man  prefers  the  plighted  faith  of  the  nation, 
in  the  shape  of  legal-tender  treasury  notes. 
This  is  the  only  money  which  has  been  truly 


loyal,  and  to  it  we  are  entirely  indebted  for  our 
financial  success.  The  soldiers  and  producers 
have  always  been  willing  to  accept  it  for  their 
services  and  supplies,  and  these  are  the  classes 
that  have  defended  and  sustained  the  Govern¬ 
ment,  and  upon  whom  the  future  hopes  of  the 
republic  depend.  It  is  then  the  duty  of-  the 
Government  to  protect  the  rights  of  these,  its 
real  supporters,  rather  than  become  an  instru¬ 
ment  in  the  hands  of  a  few  bankers  and  usurers 
for  their  oppression  and  degradation.  If  we  add 
to  the  Government  expenditures  proper  the  pay¬ 
ment  of  the  debts  incurred  by  States,  counties, 
cities,  and  towns,  for  war  purposes,  the  sum  will 
not  fall  below  four  hundred  million  dollars  an¬ 
nually,  which  will  equal  two  per  cent,  on  the 
entire  national  wealth.  And  the  taxes  for  State 
and  municipal  purposes  will  be  equal  to  at  least 
three  per  cent,  more ;  and  it  is  but  just,  that  as 
the  Government  bonds  are  not  subject  to  tax  for 
State  and  municipal  purposes,  they  should  be 
subjected  to  a  higher  tax  by  the  Government 
than  other  property  not  so  exempt;  and  the  bill 
only  contemplates  for  this  purpose  the  imposi¬ 
tion  of  what  would  be  equal  to  one  per  cent,  of 
the  principal  of  the  bond,  which  is  only  one  third 
of  the  amount  paid  on  other  property. 

Much,  very  much,  remains  to  be  said  up'm 
these  very  important  subjects  of  legislation.  But 
sufficient,  I  think,  .has  been  presented  to  con¬ 
vince  any  mind  open  to  conviction  that  our 
monetary  and  revenue  systems  are  founded  on  a 
wrong  basis,  and  wrork  great  injustice  to  the 
wealth-producing  classes;  that  our  falsely  con¬ 
stituted  monetary  system  is  the  monopoly  of  all 
monopolies;  that  railroad  and  other  kindred 
monopolies  are  but  a  means  by  which  this  power 
despoils  the  industrial  classes  of  their  produc¬ 
tions  ;  that  it  is  this  which  renders  necessary 
our  so-called  protective,  but  in  reality  oppress¬ 
ive,  tariff  laws ;  that  emancipation  itself  will 
be  shorn  of  one  of  the  principal  benefits  it  should 
have  conferred  on  the  freedman,  that  of  en¬ 
joying  the  product  of  his  labor  and  talents  ; 
that  the  exemption  of  the  Government  secu¬ 
rities,  or  any  other  species  of  productive  prop¬ 
erty,  from  its  equitable  proportion  of  the  burdens 
necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Government 
is  at  best  but  legalized  repudiation,  and  a  step 
towards  the  establishment  of  a  legal  aristocracy  ; 
that  if  this  chief  of  monopolies  be  stricken  down, 
these  and  all  other  systems  of  oppression  will 
fall  with  it. 

Money  ’ being  necessary  to  facilitate  the  ex¬ 
change  of  property,  and  the.  collection  of  the 
revenue  being  indispensable  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  Government,  it  is  not  enough  to  show  that 
the  present  systems  are  wrong,  but  it  becomes 
equally  important  to  present  a  better  plan  for 
the  attainment  of  these  ends,  which  I  will  now 
proceed  to  do. 

Having  shown  the  true  nature  of  money,  and 
the  functions  it  performs  in  the  exchange  of  pro¬ 
perty  and  the  payment  of  debts,  and  provided 
for  the  removal  of  the  obstructions  in  the  way 
of  its  institution  on  true  principles.  I  come  now 
to  present  wffiat  seems  to  be  the  true  American 


13 


monetary  system,  and  to  point  out  some  of  the 
more  important  advantages  that  would  result  to 
the  Government  and  wealth-producing  classes 
from  its  adoption.  I  will  state  in  a  general  way 
what  is  claimed  for  this  system. 

I.  The  circulating  medium  furnished  by  it  will 
be  adapted  to  the  genius  of  our  democratic  re¬ 
publican  institutions,  in  harmony  with  the  letter 
and  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  suited  to  the 
wants  of  the  Government  and  business  interests 
ef  the  nation. 

II.  It  will  be  under  the  direct  control  of  the 
sovereign  people,  who  produce  the  values  it  is  de¬ 
signed  to  represent,  measure,  and  exchange,  with 
the  power  vested  in  Congress  to  control  its  value, 
and  consequently  its  poweroverlabor  and  proper¬ 
ty,  by  regulating  the  rate  of  interest  in  theGovern- 
ment  bonds  into  which  it  is  made  convertible  at 
the  option  of  the  holder.  With  a  just  rate  of  in¬ 
terest  established  on  the  Government  bonds,  suffi¬ 
ciently  below  the  rate  of  increase  in  the  national 
wealth,  as  to  make  a  fair  distribution  of  the  pro¬ 
duct  of  labor  between  non-producing  capital  and 
producing  labor,  laborers  will  receive  an  equit¬ 
able  proportion  of  their  productions,  and  capital 
will  likewise  receive  a  just  reward  for  its  use. 

III.  It  will  be  self-adjusting,  for  should  money 
at  any  time  become  scarce  and  the  rate  of  in¬ 
terest  in  legitimate  transactions  rise  above  the 
rate  paid  on  the  Government  securities,  the 
bonds  would  be  converted  into  money.  On  the 
contrary,  should  it  become  too  abundant  and  the 
rate  of  interest  fall  below  the  rate  paid  on  the 
Government  bonds,  the  money  would  be  convert¬ 
ed  into  interest-bearing  bonds  to  the  extent  ne¬ 
cessary  to  restore  the  proper  equilibrium  ;  thus 
preventing  the  high  and  fluctuating  rates  of 
interest  and  the  violent  expansions  and  contrac¬ 
tions  of  the  currency  that  have  been  the  cause 
of  the  monetary  crises  and  commercial  revulsions 
which  have  heretofore  so  frequen  tly  prostrated  all 
branches  of  productive  industry  and  paralyzed 
legitimate  enterprise,  deranged  the  commercial 
operations  of  the  nation,  lowered  the  standard 
of  commercial  integrity,  and  made  us  little  less 
than  a  nation  of  gamblers.  These  revulsions  are 
but  the  protest  of  labor  against  demands  it  cannot 
meet  and  burdens  too  grievous  to  be  borne. 

IV.  It  will  have  equal  legal  powers,  a  uniform 
value,  and  perform  all  the  functions  of  money 
throughout  the  entire  jurisdiction  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment. 

V.  It  will  discharge  the  national  debt,  inter¬ 
est  and  principal,  in  twenty-four  years,  \yithout 
the  imposition  of  one  farthing  of  taxes  of  any 
kind  or  nature  whatever,  and  in  addition  there¬ 
to  it  will  relieve  the  wealth-producing  classes, 
or  tax-payers,  of  an  annual  burden  of  over  six 
hundred  million  dollars,  now  unnecessarily  im¬ 
posed  on  them  by  the  present  iniquitous  system. 

VI.  It  will  encourage  and  foster  legitimate 
enterprise  and  productive  industry  in  all  de¬ 
partments  of  useful  occupation,  more  than  all 
the  so-called  protective  tarifflaws  that  have  ever 
been  enacted.  Under  its  operation  commercial 
transactions  can  be  conducted  on  an  honorable 
and  safe  basis. 


VII.  It  will  be  simple  in  its  workings,  just 
in  its  bearings  on  all  classes  and  interests.  Each  . 
individual  will  have  an  interest  in  it  proportion¬ 
ate  to  the  amount  of  the  products  of  his  labor 
and  talents,  and  a  commensurate  influence  in 
its  control.  Requiring  no  aid  from  the  bankers 
and  financiers  for  its  establishment  or  conduct, 
it  will  be  emphatically  the  peoples’  plan. 

If  the  fifth  and  sixth  propositions  can  be  de¬ 
monstrated,  I  think  it  will  be  admitted  that  the 
first,  second,  third,  fourth,  and  seventh,  must 
follow  as  a  logical  consequence. 

I  will,  then,  first  exhibit  the  effects  of  its  prac¬ 
tical  workings  in  the  payment  of  the  national 
debt.  In  determining  this  question,  it  becomes 
necessary  to  fix  upon  the  probable  amount  of 
money  required  to  make  the  exchanges  and 
transact  the  business  of  the  nation. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  will  take  a 
much  larger  amount  of  money,  in  which  all 
would  have  the  fullest  confidence,  than  of  the 
miserable  apology  we  have  had,  and  always 
must  have,  under  any  system  of  banking,  in  the 
shape  of  bank-notes  or  fallacious  promises  to 
pay  money,  in  which  none  ever  had  or  oughi 
to  have  confidence. 

A  much  larger  amount,  of  this  legal  money 
will  be  retained  by  farmers,  mechanics,  and  oth¬ 
ers,  to  meet  future  obligations,  than  of  a  bank 
currency  issued  under  any  system. 

2.  Under  this  system,  labor  will  receive  a 
better  compensation,  and  most  of  the  ordinary 
business  transactions  would  be  for  cash. 

3.  The  intelligence  and  enterprise  of  the 
people,  our  unbounded  natural  resources  in  all 
that  pertains  to  individual  prosperity  and  na¬ 
tional  independence,  and  the  extent  of  territory 
over  which  the  money  would  circulate,  must 
create  a  demand  for  a  larger  amount  of  circula¬ 
tion,  per  capita ,  than  in  any  of  the  commercial 
nations  of  Europe. 

I.  have  the  authority  of  H.  C.  Carey,  Esq.,  who 
is  among  our  ablest  political  economists,  for 
saying  that  the  circulation  of  England  is  about 
twenty -five  dollars  per  capita,  and  that  of 
France  over  thirty  dollars  per  capita. 

I  think  it  therefore  safe  to  conclude  that  we 
would  require  as  much  as  forty  dollars  per  capita. 
The  population  of  the  United  States  is  at  this 
time  as  much  as  thirty-six  millions,  which,  at 
forty  dollars  each,  would  require  a  circulation 
of  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  forty  million 
dollars,  ($1,440,000,000.)  Estimating  the  na¬ 
tional  debt  at  two  billion  six  hundred  million 
dollars,  ($2,600,000,000,)  and  deducting  the 
amount  that  would  circulate  as  money  and  bear 
no  interest,  would  leave,  as  the  interest-bearing 
portion  of  the  debt,  one  thousand  one  hundred 
and  sixty  million,  ($1,160,000,000.) 

I  have  already  shown  that  if  agriculture  be 
taken  as  the  basis  of  the  national  wealth,  and 
the  division  of  products  between  landlord  and 
tenant  adopted  as  the  standard  of  distribution 
between  non-producing  capital  and  labor,  in  all 
other  departments  of  legitimate  business  the 
rate  of  interest  on  money  should  be  but  one  and 
one-ninth  per  cent,  per  annum.  The  adoption 


14 


,of  this  rate  at  once  might  be  thought  too  violent 
a  change  from  tjie  present  enormous  rate.  I 
will,  therefore,  show  the  result,  by  computing 
flie  interest  on  the  debt  at  the.  two  several  rates 
of  two  and  a  half  and  three  percent,  per  annum. 
The  former  rate  would  only  give  to  the  wealth- 
producing  classes  one-fourth  of  their  surplus 
products,  and  the  latter  but  one-tenth,  and  it  is 
the  highest  rate  that  can  be  paid  without  taking 
from  the  industrial  classes  the  property  they  al¬ 
ready  possess. 

In  order  that  money  may  be  a  true  measure 
of  values  and  distribute  productions  to  producers 
equitably  and  uniformly,  it  must  be  increased  in 
volume  in  a  like  ratio  with  the  increase  in  the 
population,  wealth,  and  business  of  the  nation. 
I  have  shown  that  the  increase  in  the  national 
wealth  has  averaged  three  and  one-third  (31) 
percent,  per  annum,  and  will  estima’e  the  in¬ 
crease  in  the  circulating  medium  at  this  rate. 

Result  with  interest  computed  at  two  atu7  a  half 

per  cent. 

According  to  the  premises  assumed  the  inter¬ 
est-bearing  portion  of  the  national  debt,  after 
deducting  the  amount -that  would  circulate  as 
money,  would  be  one  thousand  one  hundred  and 
sixty  million  dollars  ($1,160,000,000.)  Interest 
first  year,  twenty-nine  million  dollars,  ($29,- 
000,000;)  total  principal  and  interest  at  the  end 
of  the  first  year,  one  thousand  one  hundred  and 
eighty-nine  million  dollars,  ($1,189,000,000.)  In¬ 
crease  on  one  thousand,  four  hundred  and  forty 
million  dollars  ($1,140,000,000)  currency  for 
first  year,  forty-eight  millions  of  dollars,  ($48,- 
000,000,)  which,  deducted  from  the  total  debt, 
would  leave  one  thousand  one  hundred  and 
forty-one  million  dollars,  ($1,141,000,000,)  the 
interest  on  which  for  the  second  year  would  be 
twenty-eight  million  five  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars,  ($28,525,000;)  total  inter¬ 
est  and  principal  at  the  end  of  second  year  one 
thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  million 
five  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  dollars 
($1,1G9,525,000).  Add  to  the  currency  the  in¬ 
crease  for  first  year,  and  the  amount  will  be  one 
thousand  four  hundred  and  eighty-eight  million 
of  dollars,  ($1,488,000,000 ;)  the  increase  upon 
which  for  the  second  year  would  be  forty-nine 
million  six  hundred  thousand  dollars,  ($49,600,- 
000  ;)  this,  deducted  from  the  amount  of  the 
debt  at  the  end  of  the  second  year,  would  leave 
to  bear  interest  for  the  third  year  one  thousand 
one  hundred  and  nineteen  million  nine  hundred 
and  twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  ($1,119,925,- 
000.)  Add  to  the  currency  the  increase  for  the 
second  year,  and  the  amount  will  be  one  thou¬ 
sand  five  hundred  and  thirty-seven  million  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  ($1,537,600,000.)  This 
qperation  continued  will  in  twenty-two  years 
and  5eight  months  (very  nearly)  (22  years,  8 
mon tns)  absorb  the  entire  interest-bearing  debt, 
and  leave  at  the  end  of  that  period  in  circulation 
three  billion  twenty-eight  million  two  hundred 
and  ninety  thousand  dollars  ($3,028,290,000)  of 
currency,  which  will  bear  the  same' proportion  to 
the  .population,  wealth,  and  business  of  the  nation 


I 

j  that  the  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  forty 
I  million  dollars  ($1,440,000,000)  does  at  the  pre- 
:  sent  time,  and  to  keep  values  uniform  will 
always  be  wanted  for  a  circulating  medium,  and 
require  to  be  increased  thereafter  in  a  like  ratio 
with  the  increase  in  national  wealth. 

Result  with  interest  on  the  national  debt  computed 
at  three  per  cent,  per  annum. 

The  increase  in  the  currency  will  be  the  same 
as  in  the  former  case.  Interest  on  the  debt  for 
first  year,  thirty-four  million  eight  hundred 
thousand  dollars  ;  total  interest  and  principal  at 
the  end  of  first  year  one  thousand  one  hundred 
and  ninety-four  million  eight  hundred  thousand 
dollars  ($1.194,800,000) ;  deduct  the  increase  in 
the  currency  for  first  year,  forty-eight  million 
of  dollars,  ($48,000,000.)  will  leave  interest-bean- 
ing  debt  at  end  of  first  year  one  thousand  one 
hundred  and  forty-six  million  eight  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  ($1,140,800,000;)  interest  on 
this  sum  for  second  year  thirty-four  million 
four  hundred  and  four  thousand  dollars,  ($34,-. 
404,000  ;)  total  interest  and  principal  of  debt  at 
the  end  of  second  year  one  thousand  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  eighty-one  million  two  hundred  and  four 
thousand  dollars,  ($1,181,204,000;)  deduct  in¬ 
crease  in  currency  for  second  year  forty-nine 
millions  six  hundred  thousand  dollars,  ($49,600,- 
000,)  leaving  the  interest-bearing  debt  at  the 
end  of  the  second  year  one  thousand  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  thirfy-one  million  six  hundred  and 
four  thousand  dollars  ($1,131,604,000.) 

If  this  operation  be  continued  as  in  the  former 
case,  the  interest-bearing  debt  will  be  absorbed 
into  the  circulating  medium  of  the  country  in 
twenty-four  years,  (nearly,)  and  will  leave  as  the 
circulating  medium  three  billion  one  hundred 
and  sixty-one  million  two  hundred  and  forty- 
three  thousand  dollars  ($3, 161,243,000) at  the  end 
of  that  time,  which  will  bear  the  same  propor¬ 
tion  to  the  population,'  wealth,  and  business  of 
the  nation  that  one  thousand  four  hundred  and 
forty  millions  of  dollars  ($1,440,000,000)  does 
at  the  present  time  ;  and  which,  in  order  to 
maintain  the  proper  relation  of  the  currency  to 
the  population  and  business,  must  be  increased 
thereafter  in  a  like  ratio  with  the  increase  in  the 
national  wealth. 

This  increase  for  the  first  year  after  the  liqui¬ 
dation  of  the  debt  would  amount  to  one  hundred 
and  five  million  three  hundred  and  sixty-eight 
thousand  dollars,  ($105,368,000 ;)  a  sum  suffi¬ 
cient  to  defray  the  major  part  of  the  ordinary 
current  expenditures  of  the  Government. 

Thus  it  is  demonstrated  that  the  national  debt, 
which,  under  the  present  policy,  is  bearing  so 
heavily  on  the  wealth-producing  classes,  and 
which  threatens  to  hang  like  an  incubus  on  them 
for  generations  to  come,  would  by  the  system 
presented  in  the  bill  at  once  cease  to  be  a  charge, 
and  would  be  liquidated  without  the  imposition 
of  one  farthing  of  tax  in  less  than  a  quarter  of 
a  century- 

I  come  now  to  present  some  of  the  additional 
advantages  the  adoption  of  this  system  would 
confer  on  the  wealth  producing  classes,  or  tax> 


15 


payers.  I  have  estimated  that  these  classes  were, 
under  the  present  system,  paying  to  non-pro¬ 
ducing  capital  rent  or  interest  on  three  fifths  of 
the  national  wealth,  or  twelve  billion  of  dollars, 
($12,000,000,000,)  and  that  the  rate  of  interest 
averaged  as  much  as  eight  per  cent,  annually. 
If  the  system  here  proposed  be  adopted,  the 
two  billion  six  hundred  million  dollars  ($2,600,- 
000,000)  would  cease  to  be  a  charge  on  the  tax¬ 
payers,  and  must  therefore  be  deducted  from  the 
twelve  billion  dollars  ($12,000,000,000)  upon 
which  the  industrial  classes  are  now  paying  in¬ 
terest  or  rent,  which  would  leave  nine  billion 
four  hundred  million  of  dollars  ($9,400,000,000) 
upon  which  they  would  have  to  pay  interest  or 
rent.  Now  if  this  system  be  adopted  and  the 
rate  of  interest  on  the  Government  indebtedness 
be  fixed  at  three  per  cent.,  the  account  between 
non-producing  capital  and  productive  industry 
would  stand  thus : 


$12,000,000,000  at  8  per  cent .  $060,000,000 

9,400,000,000  at  3  per  cent .  2S2,000,000 


Net  annual  saving  to  the  tax-payers .  67S,000,000 

With  the  rate  of  interest  on  the  Government 
bonds  at  two  and  a  half  per  cent,  the  result 
would  be  thus : 

$12,000,000,000  at  8  per  cent .  $900,000,000 

9,400,000,000  at  per  cent .  235,000,000 


Net  annual  saving  to  the  industrial  wealth- 
producing  class . •• .  725,000,000 

With  the  rate  of  interest  at  three  per  cent. 


the  daily  saving  would  amount  to  one  million 
eight  hundred  and  fifty-seven  thousand  five  hun¬ 
dred  and  thirty- four  dollars,  ($1,857,534,)  and 
at  two  and  a  half  per  cent,  it  would  be  one  mil¬ 
lion  nine  hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand  three 
hundred  dollars,  ($1,986,300.)  The  smallest  of 
these  annual  savings  would,  in  a  few  years, 
build  the  necessary  furnaces,  mills,  and  factories, 
to  supply  our  wants  as  well  as  to  construct  all 
needful  lines  of  transit.  The  wisdom  of  the 
policy  of  giving  to  labor  all  necessary  protection 
in  the  development  of  our  natural  resources  to 
the  extent,  at  least,  of  supplying  our  own  wants 
is  too  manifest  to  admit  of  argument.  But  I 
think  a  greater  delusion  never  entered  the  mind 
Ctf  man  than  that  the  effect  of  our  so-called  pro¬ 
tective  tariff  laws  is  to  encourage  productive  in¬ 
dustry  and  protect  our  labor  against  the  pauper 
labor  of  Europe.  Their  effect  is  directly  the  op¬ 
posite.  They  protect  our  aristocratic  capital  in 
the  shape  of  fallacious  bank  promises  against 
the  capital  of  Europe,  support  a  shoddy  bank¬ 
ing  system,  and  build  up  a  cotton  and  iron-mill 
aristocracy,  and  burden  and  oppress  the  wealth- 
producing  classes. 

The  English  Government  securities  bear  three 
per  cent,  interest  per  annum,  and,  with  money 
instituted  on  true  principles,  no  sound  reason 
cam  be  given  why  it  should  bear  a  higher 
rate  in  the  United  States. 

I  have  good  authority  for  saying  that  with 
capital  at  three  per  cent.,  iron  (an  article  of 
prime  necessity)  can  be  manufactured  for  the 
tfupply  of  the  northwest,  at  least  from  the  ores 
of  Lake  Superior,  Wisconsin,  and  Missouri, 
wifch  the  coals  of  Illinois,  Chicago,  St.  Louis, 


and  intermediate  points  in  the  coal  basin  in 
the  valley  of  the  Illinois  river,  without  a 
fraction  of  protection  beyond  that  afforded  by 
the  cost  of  transportation  from  Europe.  Ana 
this,  I  believe,  will  be  found  true  in  other  lo¬ 
calities  as  well  as  of  other  articles.  We  boast 
of  our  inexhaustible  deposits  of  coal,  iron, 
and  other  minerals,  and  their  easiness  of  ao- 
cess ;  of  our  water  power  and  other  advan¬ 
tages  and  facilities  for  manfacturing  ;  and  such 
indeed  is  the  quality,  abundance,  and  accessi¬ 
bility  of  our  ores  and  coal,  that,  in  the  localities 
named,  it  does  not  require  over  two-thirds  of  the 
labor  to  produoe  a  ton  of  iron  that  it  does  in 
England,  where  it  is  manufactured  from  lean 
ores  dug  from  thin  veins  hundreds  of  feet  below 
the  earth’s  surface.  Yet,  with  all  these  advan¬ 
tages,  we  are  told  that Jphor  cannot  be  employed 
in  this  important  branch  of  industry  without 
increased  rates  of  protection. 

The  foregoing  figures  will,  I  think,  explain 
this  anomaly.  I  think  they  also  show  very 
clearly  that  the  wrongs  and  oppressions  which 
the  industrial  classes  are  suffering  are  caused  by 
the  unfair  distribution  of  the  productions  of  la¬ 
bor  between  non-producing  capital  and  produo- 
ing  labor,  resulting  from  the  institution  of  mo¬ 
ney  with  such  power  over  labor  and  property 
that  even  a  prohibitory  tariff  could  not  afford  them 
any  general  permanent  relief,  for  the  reason  that 
it  would  not  reach  and  remove  the  cause.  But 
with  money  instituted  upon  true  principles  and 
a  just  rate  per  cent,  established  for  its  use,  la¬ 
borers  would  receive  an  equitable  proportion  of 
their  productions  and  capital  a  just  reward  for 
its  use.  All  branches  of  productive  industry 
would  be  quickened  ;  capital  would  seek  invest¬ 
ment  wherever  there  was  a  reasonable  prospect 
of  a  fair  return  for  its  use.  Instead  of  shipping 
the  raw  material  across  the  continent,  and  even 
across  the  ocean,  as  we  now  do,  manufactories 
of  all  kinds  would  be  established  wherever  nat¬ 
ural  advantages  and  facilities  offer,  and  the  pro¬ 
ducer  and  consumer  brought  side  by  side,  and 
their  exchanges  made  without  the  aid  of  middle 
men  and  extortionate  carriers.  New  and  com¬ 
peting  lines  of  transit  would  be  constructed 
wherever  there  was  a  prospect  for  a  fair  return 
on  the  investment.  Thus  the  carrying  monopo¬ 
lies,  which  are  literally  robbing  the  producing 
classes,  will  be  destroyed. 

The  people  could  regulate  the  currency  to  suit 
themselves,  and  so  few  would  be  the  articles 
needing  and  so  small  the  amount  of  protection 
required,  that  no  serious  objection  would  ever  be 
made  to  it  by  any  section  or  party.  The  vexed 
questions  of  the  currency  and  protection  would 
be  very  nearly  entirely  removed  from  our  na«r 
tional  councils,  and  the  business  of  the  nation 
would  not,  as  under  the  present  system,  be  sub¬ 
ject  to  the  control  of  a  few  avaricious  bankers 
and  the  whims  of  some  utopian  financier  who 
may  chance  to  be  called  to  the  Secretaryship  of 
the  Treasury  of  the  United  States. 

Here  I  propose  to  rest  the  argument,  believing 
that  sufficient  has  been  presented  to  convince 
the  most  strenuous  advocate  of  protection  ^hat 


16 


the  adoption  of  the  monetary  system  proposed 
in  the  bill  will  do  more  to  protect  labor,  foster 
and  encourage  productive  industry  and  legiti¬ 
mate  enterprises  in  the  developement  of  our  na 
tural  resources,  than  all  the  protective  tariff 
laws  that  ever  have  or  can  be  enacted  ;  that  the 
present  wrongly  constituted  monetary  system  is 
the  chief  of  monopolies,  and  its  overthrow  will 
cause  the  downfall  of  all  railroad  and  other  kin¬ 
dred  monopolies. 

J  will  now  present  and  point  out  the  fallacies 
of  some  of  the  objections  that  may  be  made  to 
the  proposed  plan. 

It  may  be  objected  that  I  have  estimated  the 
amount  of  t*he  circulating  medium  necessar)'  to 
make  the  exchanges  of  the  property  and  pro¬ 
ducts  of  the  nation  too  high.  To  this  I  reply, 
the  amount  of  currency  needed  by  a  nation  is 
in  proportion  to  its  production;  and  as  the  adop- 
tion  of  this  system  would  take  away  the  occupa¬ 
tion  of  the  bankers,  brokers,  and  speculators, 
they  would  be  compelled  to  earn  their  living  by 
honest  industry,  which  would  add  them  to  the 
industrial  classes,  the  direct  effect  of  which  would 
be  to  increase  production ;  and  the  impetus  giv¬ 
en  to  enterprise  by  the  establishment  of  a  just 
rate  of  interest  on  money  would  require  a  much 
larger  amount^er  capita  than  when,  as  under  the 
present  system,  it  is  controlled  and  doled  out  to 
the  people  by  a  few  selfish  bankers.  To  this  addi¬ 
tion  to  the  wealth- producing  classes  must  be 
added  the  army  of  clerks,  assessors,  collectors, 
inspectors,  and  other  officers  and  agents  em¬ 
ployed  by  the  Government  in  the  collection  of 
the  internal  revenue;  for  under  the  operation  of 
this  system  the  Government  expenditures  would 
be  so  reduced  that  the  funds  necessary  to  defray 
the  current  expenses  could  be  collected  mainly 
from  custom  duties  and  the  sale  of  the  public 
domain.  Any  deficit  that  might  occur  could  be 
assessed  on  the  several  States  and  collected  by 
them  with  the  employment  of  but  little  addi¬ 
tional  force  beyond  that  required  in  the  col¬ 
lection  of  the  revenue  for  State  purposes. 
Besides,  the  emancipation  of  labor  from  the 
thraldom  imposed  by  the  present  ‘false  system, 
with  the  inducements  offered  by  our  agricultural 
and  mineral  resources  and  other  advantages  and 
facilities,  would  draw  from  the  Old  World  thou¬ 
sands  of  skilled  miners,  artizans,  and  others, 
which,  I  think,  would  soon  create  a  demand  for 
a  greater  rather  than  a  less  amount  than  I  have 
estimated,  and  our  debt  would  be  absorbed  into 
the  currency  in  a  shorter  time  than  I  have  named. 

Another  and  favorite  objection  that  the  bank¬ 
ers  and  their  allies  will  make  to  this  or  any 
measure  looking  to  the  emancipation  of  labor 
from  the  thraldom  imposed  upon  it  by  their  false 
system  is,  that,  since  money  never  has  been  in¬ 
stituted  on  a  just  principle,  it  never  can  be.  This 
is  the  argument  used  by  kings  and  despots  to  prove 
that  they  have  a  divine  right  to  rule,  and  that  a 
democratic  or  republican  government  is  a  trespass 
against  divine  authority,  and  never  will  be  per¬ 
mitted  to  stand,  except  for  a  brief  period  of  time. 

It  has  just  as  much  force  and  reason  in  the 
former  case  as  in  the  latter. 


To  say  that  the  people  will  not  accept,  in  ex¬ 
change  for  the  products  of  their  labor,  legal-ten¬ 
der  Treasury  notes,  issued  as  provided  in  the 
bill,  is  to  say  that  they  will  repudiate  the  Gov¬ 
ernment;  and  to  say  they  have  not  the  intelli¬ 
gence  and  virtue  necessary  to  properly  regulata 
the  currency,  under  the  provisions  of  the  bill,  is 
to  deny  that  they  have  the  capacity  for  self-gov¬ 
ernment. 

I  have  shown,  and  I  think  clearly  proven^-— 

1st.  That  the  poivers  of  money  are  legal  and 
entirely  independent  of  its  material — its  powers 
as  money  being  derived  from  the  law  instituting 
it  and  making  it  a  legal  tender  ;  that  the  power 
to  make  money  and  regulate  its  value  is  an  es¬ 
sential  attribute  of  sovereignty ;  and  that  it  is 
the  medium  of  distribution  to  non-producing 
capital  and  producing  labor,  the  rate  of  interest 
determining  what  proportion  of  the  products  of 
labor  shall  bo  awarded  to  laborers  for  their  pro¬ 
ductions,  and  what  to  capital  for  its  use. 

2d.  That  our  present  monetary  system  is 
founded  on  the  aristocratic  idea  of  government, 
and  is  inimical  to  and  subversive  of  our  demo¬ 
cratic  republican  institutions.  If  continued  in 
operation,  the  wealth  must  be  rapidly  central¬ 
ized  in  the  hands  of  the  few  non-producers  ;  the 
wealth-producing  classes  oppressed,  degraded, 
and  ultimately  reduced  to  a  state  of  positive 
servitude,  democracy  prove  a  failure,  and  uni¬ 
versal  suffrage — a  sham. 

3d.  That  it  has  been  demonstrated  with  P-qnflT 
clearness  that  the  monetary  system  contem¬ 
plated  by  the  bill  is  founded  on  the  democratic 
idea  of  government,  adapted  to  the  genius  of 
our  free  institutions,  and  in  harmony  with  the 
letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution  ;  that  under 
its  operation  labor  would  be  properly  compen¬ 
sated,  the  wealth  diffused  and  distributed  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  labor  or  service  performed  in  its  pro¬ 
duction  democracy  maintained;  and  universal 
suffrage  rendered  ja  universal  blessing. 

Having  pointed  out,  and  as  I  believe  fully 
sustained,  its  superiority  in  all  respects  in  an 
economical  point  of  view,  it  only  remains  to  show 
its  advantages  in  a  political  point  of  view. 

It  would  restore  commercial  relations  between 
all  parts  of  our  common  country  ;  develop  and 
harmonize  that  mutuality  of  interest  which 
naturally  exists  between  the  different  sections  of 
our  extended  domain,  growing  out  of  varieties  of 
climate  and  productions,  which  b}*  unwise  legis¬ 
lation  has  been  made  to  appear  adverse  and 
conflicting  ;  it  would  interest  each  citizen  pecu¬ 
niarily  in  the  preservation  and  perpetuity  of 
the  Government.  Dispensing  its  blessings  im¬ 
partially  to  all,  it  would  make  us  a  homogeneous 
family  of  States — one  in  interest,  one  in  sympa¬ 
thy,  and  one  in  purpose.  United  by  theso 
strong  ties,  our  Union  would  stand  proof  alika 
against  the  machinations  of  enemies  within  and 
the  assault  of  foes  from  without. 

Pass  the  bill,  adopt  this  system,  separate  tha 
races,  colonize  the  African,  elect  General  Grant 
President  in  1868,  then  peace,  prosperity,  and 
happiness,  will  reign  over  our  glorious  country. 


